Achieving water security and the SDGs
The Water Show Africa, held in Johannesburg over March 28th and 29th, brought together a series of speakers, both locally and internationally, to help bridge the gap between the opportunities and challenges…
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Category: Society
A focused intelligence section from the Mark and Focus archive, connecting recurring analysis across policy, infrastructure, resilience, technology, and urban systems change.
Straight to the source of drinking water
A key aspect of managing demand for water is ensuring populations use their existing water supplies as efficiently as possible before plans are made to expand supplies through financially costly water transfer…
A green urban transportation future
Globally, the transportation sector, which includes the movement of people and goods by cars, trucks, trains, ships, airplanes and other vehicles, is one of the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG):…
Ethics and the Environment – Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic
“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching – even when doing the wrong thing is legal” Aldo Leopold In the face of climate change, human beings…
Frankfurt’s GreenBelt acting as a green lung
Frankfurt is one of the world’s leading green cities with: 52% of its space green; 160,000 trees lining its streets and spaces; and 40 parks and 50 lakes for recreation and outdoor…
Melbourne’s urban forest of the future
The City of Melbourne’s urban forests are facing multiple challenges to their survival from climate change, population growth and urban heating. Over the next 20 years the city will experience a changing…
Reducing the costs of land degradation from agriculture
Over the past two centuries, humans have converted or modified 70% of the world’s grasslands, 50% of the savannah, 45% of temperate forests and 27% of tropical forests for farming and grazing…
Water scarcity a catalyst for cooperation
Demand for water is projected to outstrip supply by 2030 as a result of numerous mega-trends including climate change, rapid economic and population growth and urbanization. As such there is potential for…
Mixing education with food security
Urban farming is the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around cities. Examples of food products grown include crops such as grains, root crops, vegetables, mushrooms and fruit.…
Berlin’s urban redevelopment along the Spree
This year ARCADIS launched its first Sustainable Cities Index. The purpose of the index is to take 50 of the most prominent cities and look at how viable they are as places…